Tuesday, January 17, 2012

James Bond's SILVER BEAST is for sale

UPDATE: It appears the city of Trollhättan has prevailed and the collection, including The Silver Beast, has been saved!

The promotional replica of James Bond's famous Saab -- the "Silver Beast" -- is going on the auction block along with the contents of Saabs motor museum in Trollhättan, Sweden. The sale is part of Saab's recent bankruptcy.

James Bond drove the Saab in the first three John Gardner continuation novels, License Renewed, For Special Services, and Icebreaker. It's always been a favorite Bond vehicle of mine (check out my overview of the car here), especially as I had my own "Saab 007" in the '80s. Wish I could buy it!

Click to enlarge

The car is noted as being as being "a little rusty, will not start, not in a good condition." Mileage is 60,417. However, it does come equipped with the original bulletproof glass, smokescreen equipment, and digital head-ups instrument display from the Saab 37 Viggen fighter and attack aircraft.

Bids are being accepted until this Friday. However, my tipster tells me there's a chance that the collection and museum could be purchased and saved by the City of Trollhättan and the local municipality.

Oh, man, John... you HAVE to bid on this! Perhaps then you could loan it to the Trollhättan museum indefinitely... until you had enough to import it and store it here, anyway! But, seriously, as night person said, this is one Bond collectible that absolutely BELONGS in your collection!!!